Youssef Shtayyeh, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy, returned home from school on an April afternoon, dropped his bag in the hallway, and headed straight back out to join his friends. Minutes later, he was dead, shot by an Israeli soldier just 100 meters from his home. His death is not an isolated incident.
Rising Casualties Among Minors
Since Israel launched a major military operation against armed Palestinian groups in the northern West Bank in January 2025, one Palestinian minor has been killed every week on average across the territory. This marks a sharp increase from one every three weeks in 2021, according to UNICEF, the United Nations children's agency. A UNICEF report dated May 12 indicates that 70 teenagers, mostly aged 15 to 16, have been killed to date, with 65 of them killed by Israeli forces. The toll continued to rise with the deaths of Youssef Kaabnah, 16, on May 13, and Fahd Oweis, 15, two days later.
Stone-Throwing as Justification
The Israeli military stated that both Kaabnah and Oweis had hurled stones at soldiers. It is almost certain that Shtayyeh was also throwing stones on April 23 in Nablus, the largest city in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967. Witnesses reported that Youssef and his friends were on a side street above a main road when a passing couple spotted them throwing stones. The couple also saw a military convoy below. One jeep stopped, then others. A soldier got out, followed by two more, and they began shooting at the children, according to a driver who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.
Lethal Wounds and Medical Response
A neighbor filmed the aftermath: two shots, then screams. Youssef grabbed the car door, pleading, "Please don't leave me, I'm scared. Take me to my father, take me home." The driver rushed him to the hospital, but by the time they arrived, the boy was silent. Surgeon Bahaa Fattouh, who treated him, described a gunshot wound entering the back and exiting through the chest. Doctors resuscitated him and rushed him to the operating theater, but his heart stopped again and could not be revived. Fattouh noted a shift in injuries since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023: "Earlier, we used to treat minor injuries — legs, arms, rubber bullets. But now we only see lethal wounds — chest, head." He described these wounds as "designed to kill," with most patients dying on the operating table.
Israeli Military Response
AFP contacted the Israeli military on the day of the incident and again after returning from Nablus. The response was identical: "A terrorist threw stones at soldiers. The soldiers applied the standard arrest procedure, which ended with fire being directed at the suspect." Israeli daily Haaretz recently quoted the military's commander for the West Bank, Major General Avi Bluth, stating that troops had killed 42 Palestinians for throwing stones in 2025. He described stone-throwing as "terrorism."
Father's Grief and Questions
Standing at the spot where his son fell, Sameh Shtayyeh, a 48-year-old building contractor, stared down at the road below. "Whether he threw stones or not — what does it matter? Where is the danger to an army patrol?" he asked bitterly. He contrasted the response with protests in Israel or France, where people throw stones and bins and face nothing worse than arrest. He buried Youssef in the family village of Tell, five kilometers from Nablus. Weeks later, women still held a vigil at the flower-covered grave, topped with a portrait of the teenager on a football pitch. His father had promised to take him to Saudi Arabia to watch Cristiano Ronaldo play. Now, each time Sameh comes home, Youssef is not there to greet him. His eldest son returns from school, but Youssef is not there. He glances at the back seat of his car, but Youssef is not there.
